1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bubble separators, and in particular, relates to bubble separators that can prevent damage to a cooling mechanism that is connected downstream of the separator and can prevent over-cooling of a fluid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, cyclone-type bubble separators are known that remove air bubbles contained in a gas-liquid mixed fluid that is introduced into a main body (refer, for example, to Patent Document 1). In addition, such bubble separators are also generally used to remove the air bubbles in lubricating oil in an internal combustion engine.
Here, the oil that is discharged from a lubricating path in an internal combustion engine normally has a temperature that exceeds a suitable temperature range. Thus, technology has been proposed in which, for example, as shown in FIG. 13, an oil cooler 109 is connected downstream of the bubble separator 101, oil from which the air bubbles have been removed by the bubble separator is cooled by the oil cooler 109 and the temperature of the oil is adjusted so as to fall within a suitable temperature range (refer, for example, to paragraph [0036] and FIG. 6 in Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2000-176204
However, in the proposed technology described above, an oil cooler is simply connected downstream of the bubble separator, and thus, for example, during the start-up of the internal combustion engine, when the oil has a low temperature and a high viscosity, a loss of pressure that passes through the gaps in the oil cooler increases, and there is a concern that the oil cooler will be damaged. In addition, the low temperature oil is cooled by the oil cooler, and the oil is overcooled. Thus, time is consumed until the oil reaches a suitable temperature range.